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Vancouver Coastal Health is rethinking how health care is delivered in the DTES. Over the last two years, we asked agencies and residents for their ideas about health services. We now have a papet that describes a new vision for the future. Before we start actually making changes, we want to talk with Downtown Eastside residents again to ask them what they think about our plans.

A. Make health care feel safer, with staff who better understand where people are coming from and what they need.

1. Train staff in how to work better with Aboriginal Clients, women who work in the sex trade, people who have experienced trauma, etc

2. Require all the agencies VCH funds to be safe for women, young people, LGBT and Aboriginal people.

3. Create new dedicated women’s health services.

4. Help agencies that are meant for adults but have youth using their services too to better support those youth.

B. Help people get the care they need, when and where they need it.

1. Make the clinics open longer and open Insite earlier in the day.

2. Have VCH outreach teams going to any hotel where people need it, not just VCH-funded hotels.

3. Make drops-ins an easy place for people to connect to the medical care they need.

4. Set up mobile clinics for women in places around the neighbourhood where women spend time.

5. Start looking at home to improve the way we treat people for chronic pain.

6. Get agencies working togethet to improve the way we care for people who are dying.

C. Make the housing that we fund better at supporting tenants with their unique health needs.

1. Give people the choice to have their Tennant Support Worker work more closely with their health care team.

2. Make health-funded housing tailored to peope who need special supports. For example, people with brain injury will be supported by the same housing program.

D. Fill important health service gaps for people who are struggling with difficult transitions

1. Create a new place for people who are homeless to stay when they leave the hospital and help them connect them to more support while they are healing.

2. Improve the way we support youth who are becoming adults (and are getting too old for youth services).

E. Make healthy, affordable/free food more available

1. Create a plan for how we will work together to improve access to health food across the neighbourhood.

2. Set standards for the quality of the food served by the programs that VCH funds. Do research to see if providing healthy foods improves people’s health.